Earlier quoted context omitted.
and soon/now triple as surveillance.
[flagged]
Please don't rewrite your comment like this once it has replies. It deprives the replies of their original context, making the thread less readable.
Gemini 2.5 Computer Use model
221–230 of 339 posts
Re: Gemini 2.5 Computer Use model
#222Earlier quoted context omitted.
and soon/now triple as surveillance.
Those cameras aren’t usually easily or cheaply adapted to surveillance. Most are really simple and don’t have things like reliable time sync. Also, road jurisdictions are really complex and surveillance requires too much coordination. State, county, town, city all have different bureaucratic processes and funding models. Surveillance is all about Flock. The feds are handing out grants to everyone, and the police drop…
In my city, cameras for traffic light control are on almost every signalized intersection, and the video is public record and frequently used to review collisions. These cameras are extremely cheaply and easily adapted to surveillance. Public records are public records statewide.
Re: Gemini 2.5 Computer Use model
#223Many years ago I was sitting at a red light on a secondary road, where the primary cross road was idle. It seemed like you could solve this using a computer vision camera system that watched the primary road and when it was idle, would expedite the secondary road's green light. This was long before computer vision was mature enough to do anything like that and I found out that instead, there are magnetic systems that…
I recently spent some time in a country house far enough from civilization that electric lines don’t reach. The owners could have installed some solar panels, but they opted to keep it electricity-free to disconnect from technology, or at least from electronics. They have multiple decades old ingenious utensils that work without electricity, like a fridge that uses propane, oil lamps, non-electric coffee percolator, etc. and that made me wonder, how many analogous devices stopped getting invented because an electric device is the most obvious way of solving things to our current view.
Re: Gemini 2.5 Computer Use model
#224Can somebody give me use cases that are faster than using an UX? How am I supposed to use this. I really can’t think of one, but I don’t want to be blind-sighted as obviously a lot of money is going into this. I also appreciate the tech behind it and functionality, but I still wonder for use cases
Filling your CV in the workday applications
Re: Gemini 2.5 Computer Use model
#225I really want this model to try userinyerface.com
Re: Gemini 2.5 Computer Use model
#226Earlier quoted context omitted.
Post edited: I was wrong about this. Gemini tried to solve the Google CAPTCHA but it was actually Browserbase that did the solve, notes here: https://simonwillison.net/2025/Oct/7/gemini-25-computer-use-...
Interesting that they're allowing Gemini to solve CAPTCHAs because OpenAI's agent detects and forces user-input for CAPTCHAs despite being fully able to solve them
Just a matter of time until they lose customer base to other AI tools. Why would I waste my time when the AI is capable to do, and forces me to do unnecessary work. Same as Claude, can’t even draft an email in gmail, too afraid to type…
Re: Gemini 2.5 Computer Use model
#227Earlier quoted context omitted.
Post edited: I was wrong about this. Gemini tried to solve the Google CAPTCHA but it was actually Browserbase that did the solve, notes here: https://simonwillison.net/2025/Oct/7/gemini-25-computer-use-...
I was concerned there might be sensitive info leaked in the browserbase video at 0:58 as it shows a string of characters in the browser history: nricy.jd t.fxrape oruy,ap. majro 3 groups of 8 characters, space separated followed by 5 for a total of 32 characters. Seemed like text from a password generator or maybe an API key? Maybe accidentally pasted into the URL bar at one point and preserved in browser history? I…
Is this as impressive as it initially seems though? A Bing search for the text shows up some Web results for Dvorak to QWERTY conversion, I think because the word ‘t.fxrape’ (keyboard) hits. So there’s a lot of good luck happening there.
Re: Gemini 2.5 Computer Use model
#228Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not the current benchmarks, no. The demos in this post are so slow. Between writing the prompt, waiting a long time and checking the work I’d just rather do it myself.
It's not about being faster than you. It's about working independently while you do other things.
And it's a neat-enough idea for repetitive tasks.
For instance: I do periodic database-level backups of a very closed-source system at work. It doesn't take much of my time, but it's annoying in its simplicity: Run this GUI Windows program, click these things, select this folder, and push the go button. The backup takes as long as it takes, and then I look for obvious signs of either completion or error on the screen sometime later.
With something like this "Computer Use" model, I can automate that process.
It doesn't matter to anyone at all whether it takes 30 seconds or 30 minutes to walk through the steps: It can be done while I'm asleep or on vacation or whatever.
I can keep tabs on it with some combination of manual and automatic review, just like I would be doing if I hired a real human to do this job on my behalf.
(Yeah, yeah. There's tons of other ways to back up and restore computer data. But this is the One, True Way that is recoverable on a blank slate in a fashion that is supported by the manufacturer. I don't get to go off-script and invent a new method here.
But a screen-reading button-clicker? Sure. I can jive with that and keep an eye on it from time to time, just as I would be doing if I hired a person to do it for me.)
Re: Gemini 2.5 Computer Use model
#229Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ironically now that computer vision is commonplace, the cameras you talk about have become increasingly popular over the years because the magnetic systems do not do a very good job of detecting cyclists and the cameras double as a congestion monitoring tool for city staff.
> the cameras you talk about have become increasingly popular over the years cameras are being used to detect traffic and change lights? i don't think thats happening in USA. which country are you referring to here?
> cameras are being used to detect traffic and change lights? i don't think thats happening in USA.
Has been for the better part of a decade. Google `Iteris Vantage` and you will see some of the detection systems.
Re: Gemini 2.5 Computer Use model
#230> It is not yet optimized for desktop OS-level control Alas, AGI is not yet here. But I feel like if this OS-level of control was good enough, and the cost of the LLM in the loop wasn't bad, maybe that would be enough to kick start something akin to AGI.
I am curious. Why do you think controlling an OS (and not just a browser) would be a move towards AGI?
Not just the os, but browsing control is enough to do 99% of the things he would want autonomously.
Bank account + id + browser: has all the tools it needs to do many things:
- earn money - allocate money - create accounts - delegate physical jobs to humans
Create his own self loop in a server. Create a server account, use credit card + id provided, self host his own code… can now focus on getting more resources.